A Little Wager
by Livelier
Summary: Harry and Ginny can't decide what to name their first baby, so Harry makes a little wager. Anyone up for a game of Wizard's chess? Oneshot! R&R?


_A/N: My big AN is at the bottom, like usual. Please read it! R&R! Thanks!_

_Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own it. But I'd be honored if you want to delude yourself into thinking I'm JKR. Really._

A Little Wager

Harry Potter looked up from the list in front of him to give his wife an incredulous look. "Ginny, there is no way we are naming our first son Harry Fred Potter."

"First? Are you saying there will be more?" Ginny asked with a familiar sparkle in her eye.

Harry rolled his eyes. "That's besides the point," he said. "I won't let you name our son after me."

"You always were the chivalrous type," Ginny mused, tapping her chin thoughtfully. She was failing miserably at hiding her grin, but Harry didn't seem to notice.

Frustrated, he sighed loudly. "You're missing the point here, Ginny." He could hardly believe she wanted to name the poor child _Harry Fred_. It sounded truly dreadful, if he was being honest.

Determined to keep up her act, Ginny feigned a defiant look. "Why?" she demanded. "I like that name! I think Fred deserves to have a place in our son's life."

Our son. Harry quite liked the sound of that, and he really didn't want to ruin the notion by giving him a name like Harry Fred, but he couldn't argue with Ginny's logic.

An idea sparked in Harry's mind. "I'll tell you what," he said. "I will play you for it. One game of wizards' chess."

Ginny raised her eyebrows and leaned forward so her elbows were resting on the table. "You dare challenge a Weasley at a game of chess? I think you're forgetting that I grew up with _Ron._"

Harry just shrugged, unfazed by the idea. He had a few tricks up his sleeve as well. "Yes, I dare."

Competitive side ignited by the idea of a challenge, Ginny perked up. "Fine," she agreed with a smirk. "If you win, you get to name the baby anything you want, but if _I_ win I get to name him, and you have to cook me dinner. A _good_ dinner, I mean."

Harry—looking indignant and highly affronted—stuck his hand out over the table. Ginny took it firmly in hers and they shook.

"Game on," Harry announced, pushing back from the table.

Ginny shrugged. "Okay, but down come crawling back to me when you _lose_…"

"When have I ever crawled back to you?" Harry asked, shocked that she would say such a thing.

With a lazy wave of her hand, Ginny dismissed that. "Yeah, yeah. You're a hero. Big whoop."

Harry grinned. "Is that why you wanted to name the little guy after me?"

"Nope," she replied easily. "I just like the name."

They both laughed. Harry delighted in the sound of their laughs mingling together. But that was just one of the many reasons why he married her.

He loved that she was her own person, how she couldn't care less what other people thought about her. She wasn't afraid of others' judgments. But most of all, he loved the fact that he was just Harry to her. He wasn't The Boy Who Lived or The Chosen One. He was just Harry. The money and the fame that came along with him was just another unnecessary addition. Neither bothered them too much.

Harry took his time searching for the chess set. He was busy trying to remember all those years back to his first year at Hogwarts, when Ron had introduced him to and taught him how to play Wizards' chess. He wished Ron was there—he would do anything to help Harry win this game if it saved a helpless child from a dreadful name—but he and Hermione were probably arguing over what color to paint the bedroom.

When he would delay no longer, Harry pulled the chess set from a drawer he knew it had been in all along. He even went as far as grumbling that he never knew where anything in the blasted house was.

Ginny grinned. She knew the whole thing was an act—they had a mini chess tournament on Wednesday.

Harry dumped the black and white pieces from the bag they were in and began setting them in their proper positions on the board, ignoring their loud protests and occasional grunts of pain.

"How very rude of you! I'm a queen, you know!" one of the white pieces shouted, raising her fists at Harry. Some of the other players echoed her statement.

"Oh, shut it," Harry muttered. He turned one side of the board to his wife. "You get the white. Vicious little guys, they are…"

Smirking, Ginny shrugged. "Suit yourself. Knight to C3," she commanded, officially beginning the game.

Harry hummed his approval. "Bold move, Mrs. Potter." He grinned. It never got old. "You there, Pawn, go to G5!"

Ginny waggled her eyebrows. "A pawn, Harry? Really?" she questioned jokingly. "You must not be very confident in winning this game if you're moving the weakest player on the board first."

Trying to conceal just how right she was Harry shrugged. "You never know," he said in singsong voice. "He could very well be my secret weapon.

A loud, disbelieving snort broke through Ginny's convincing poker face. "Like a stealth pawn?" She laughed. "I think _stealth knight_ sounds loads better."

Leaning back in his chair, Harry waved his hand over the chessboard. "Alright, then. Show me this 'stealth knight'," he said.

Just minutes later, Harry understood what Ginny had meant about using the weakest player on the board. He had argued that he hadn't moved the weakest player at all: the king is the one limited to one space in any direction, not the pawn.

"But he can't be the weakest, otherwise the point of the game would not be to capture the king," Ginny had pointed out with a gleam in her eyes. "What would the opponents want with the weakest guy?"

So it was therefore deemed that the king was the most powerful guy on the chessboard, second only to the queen—as it should be, Ginny said. The pieces all had something to say about that, of course. This little "discussion" ended up in Harry's king piercing his queen with his sword.

Well, Ginny's queen—the white one—thought that the king was a sexist pig and was outraged when he killed the black queen, so she marched right up to him and dropped her sword right over the black king's head, splitting him cleanly in half.

It was at this point that Harry claimed Ginny was the winner—her queen _had_ managed to kill the opposing king—and hastily began sweeping up the pieces and fragments into their bag before any of the other players could start a riot.

"A little warning might have been nice," grumbled Harry to the pieces. "Perhaps you could have given us a pleasant 'checkmate'? Now we're going to have to buy an all new set. Thanks a lot."

Ginny shook her head without saying a word as she watched Harry pick up the chess set. Was her husband really talking to chess pieces? Maybe since he defeated the worst wizard in the world he though he could turn barmy on her.

A devilish grin spread across Ginny's face. "So, since I won, I guess that means I get to choose our son's name." She grinned inwardly as Harry grimaced.

"Yes, I suppose that was out bargain," Harry agreed weakly, obviously wishing that Ron would have taught him more and that he should not have made a bet with a Weasley woman.

"Hmm…" Ginny made a big show of tapping her chin thoughtfully and pretending to be stumped. "Oh, I got it!" she exclaimed suddenly, making Harry jump. "We'll name him James Sirius Potter."

Harry let out the breath he had been holding and immediately started to pace. "Are you _absolutely positive_ you want to name our _first child_—wait, what do you want to name our first child?" Harry asked his wife intently, acting as if he'd just been hit by a Bludger.

Ginny laughed delightfully and touched Harry's arm. "I want to name out son James Sirius," she repeated slowly, smiling. "I thought it would be fitting. I know how much they meant to you, so I figured we'd incorporate them into our new life."

It took a moment, but Harry finally seemed to unfreeze. He grinned before swooping Ginny off her feet and spinning her around. They both laughed and squealed.

"So you like it?" Ginny asked breathlessly. Her face was flushed from the exertion and she was clutching at her bulging stomach.

"I love it. I love it!" Harry cried. "And I love you."

"I love you too," she said, winking. "But you should have known better than to make a little wager with me."

_A/N: Hey, guys! Miss me? Well, I sure missed all of you. It's been kind of depressing not getting emails from everyday. Anyway, while I was working on my super top-secret project today, I noticed a few documents in my Fanfiction section that I had never posted on . So I went ahead and finished them up and decided to post them! Hopefully you like them. But, of course, the only way I'll know is if you leave a review! Please? Gracias! Keep reading! Love you all!_

_Love,_

_Livelier_


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